Many people don’t realize how difficult it is to sell seats to an event.
How I sold out an arena. The fact is, most events that are attempted DON’T sell out and some even have to cancel because not enough tickets are sold—or they end up giving seats away for FREE for pennies on the dollar.
Whether it’s a concert, a ballgame, or a conference…it’s a tough gig selling seats!
The Miami Marlins typically have this many seats filled at a game. When I held the 10X Growth Conference in Miami last year, it was the fullest the stadium had ever been.
Most conferences you’ll attend are half empty because event organizers can’t sell enough seats.
What often happens is an event will actually REMOVE seats to avoid the embarrassment that they couldn’t sell out. Sports teams are doing this around the country:
Some teams stop even bothering with selling upper deck seats.
Other teams simply COVER entire sections of seats that they are unable to sell.
When it comes to the concert world, there’s a long history of reducing seats when ticket levels aren’t hit. A classic example of this happened right down the road from where I am in Miami Beach—Elvis had booked the convention center with 10,000 seats. He found out very late that thousands of seats were left unsold.
They had to take out 5,000 chairs, put them in the parking lot and put a big blue tarp over them because Elvis wouldn’t play to a half-empty room.
So NOT selling out happens even to legends like Elvis.
That said, there are certain people and companies that DO sell massive amounts of event tickets on a consistent basis.
Kevin Hart, who will be at the upcoming 10X Growth Conference, recently became the first comedian ever to sell over 1 million tickets worldwide.
Selling Out Events is NOT easy
While it’s easy to have an idea to put on an event such as a conference, it’s tough to actually sell tickets.
Oftentimes people will have to travel and book a hotel, which can be a barrier for most unless you are bringing massive value.
Here are 3 basic steps I use to sell out big events around the country:
#1 HAVE AN IDEA/GOAL:
This is the first step to doing anything. Everything starts in your mind.
Back in December 2016, I had a simple idea, but I knew making it into reality would be a big task. I wanted to put on a “10X” conference for entrepreneurs, business owners, and anyone looking to increase their income in life.
This is perhaps the most simple step, but it’s also the most difficult.
If you don’t have a good idea that people want, you’re not going to sell anything anyway. So first start with a good idea, and make a goal of how many units or tickets you want to sell.
You also need to pick a price. What will you sell each seat for? Will it be a bargain $99 event or a premium $5,000 ticket? Keep in mind you should have different levels of tickets for sale to have selections for people to choose from. Just as no good restaurant has only one thing on the menu, your event should have at least 3 options for people to choose from.
I’ve done General Seating, Executive Seating, Executive Floor Seating, VIP seating, Premier Seating, and Diamond Seating. You can call it what you wish and price it what you wish—just make sure that you deliver more value than what they pay!
Be careful not to price your tickets too low—events have many unexpected expenses you don’t think about beforehand! In fact, MOST conferences are NOT profitable.
#2 Flip the Story
You need to flip the story when it comes to your offers. It’s very difficult to sell out a big event with just a single offer.
What I do is create multiple landing pages, one for each story I want to pitch. Every event should have multiple landing pages you can send people depending upon the story you’re telling. Your initial web page is your home base, it’s the generic page and gives all the information about the event, but as you create more offers you need more landing pages that are specific to those offers.
The last thing you need is an overcrowded website with too many offers going on.
Here are some examples of story flips:
- Buy a ticket get in my mentoring program FREE
- Buy a ticket get a FREE personal coaching session
- Buy a ticket get 12 months access to my online Cardone University for FREE now
- Buy a ticket, get 100% credit back on any digital products in my store
- Buy a ticket get your airfare/hotel included
- Buy one ticket, get a second ticket FREE
Do you see the different stories playing out here? I’ve got people who want to spend time with me, I’ve got other people who just don’t want to bother with booking a hotel and want me to take care of that.
#3 LEAD GENERATE
Once you have all your landing pages up to easily send people to different places, now it’s just a numbers game. You need traffic.
Even for a guy like me with millions of followers on social media, I don’t depend solely on organic traffic. This is where paid ads on Facebook, Google, Instagram, and YouTube come in.
I’ve sold out events around the country because I trust I will always sell it out.
Although the 10X Growth Conference is SOLD OUT, you can watch it all from the comfort of your home.
We’ve released a special early bird discount on the 10X Growth Conference Live Stream——> Get the deal HERE.
Be Great,
Grant
